Our last night in Nigeria

Counting out Ibuprofen and putting them in labeled bags for the village people that we had seen days prior in our clinics in Onitsha.

Queen had a dinner party with family and friends the last night that we were in Nigeria. We wore our Nigerian outfits that Queen's friend made for us. It was a great way to end the trip.

Me, Kathy, & Erin in our Nigerian attire. We had a little bit of difficulty trying to put our head wraps on properly!

Beautiful faces

Erin and I stopped by a school during a morning walk in Atta

This picture should be after the one below. The little girl carrying her sibling.

We ran into these two little ones during our morning walk. It just amazed me how well the children there get along and take care of each other. They play so well together, try to comfort the younger children when they cry, and always seem to be looking out for one another. I have to admit that I was not quite as nurturing to my siblings growing up! :)

I just thought this was ironic and funny

It's rare that you don't see a woman with a baby on her back

more pictures

Doing assessments at one of our clinics in Onitsha

"Smash" our now deceased spider friend that was in Kathy's room

Onitsha shanties. Below that wall and railing is a canal filled with sewage and trash

An adorable village boy in Atta

I was told that this woman was "sick". When asking what was wrong with her I was told that she was widowed.

Finally...pictures!

Finally I am able to post some pictures! I am still waiting for pictures from other people, but thought that I would post some of my favorites that I have (I took over 600). I wish I would have been able to post them while in Nigeria, but I am still very excited to share some of them with you.
I thank you again for following along with me on this wonderful journey. I miss being there, but am also happy to be home. I am so grateful that I was once again blessed with an opportunity like this. I feel that we were able to accomplish a lot while we were there, but I always leave these places wishing that we could have done even more. I hope that you enjoy the pictures and I thank you again for all your thoughts, prayers, and support.

Love Always,

Steph

I love these ladies! They were sitting in front of the clinic each day as we arrived.
I told the kids to gather around us so we could get a picture. Instead they kind of tackled us. They Loved having their pictures taken and would say "snap me". They thought it was so funny when they could look at themselves on the digital camera screen. These are the kids at the Manna school.

Our team. Queen, Erin, Kathy, me, Robert, and Mike. They were so much fun to travel with and work with.

A boy getting IV antibiotics at the Manna hospital

Erin and I checking spleen sizes on two of the Manna school girls

Home Safely

I am home, and exhausted! After 30 some hours on planes and in airports we arrived safely in Minneapolis on time. Our flights were very good and we cleared customs without any problems. It was the first time going on one of these trips that I was actually ready to come home. The weather in Nigeria was just unbearable. However, the people are pretty amazing. There is so much poverty, but yet so much hope. This is not the case in places that I've been before like Haiti. The people are extremely religious and spend their time focusing on God and family rather than material things (which they have none of). The only time that we really saw a lot of sadness was when women were infertile or when they became widowed. Women are expected to have many children and they start at a very young age. Many of the marriages are prearranged and they are married by age 12. They start having children as soon as they are married. The people there couldn't believe that Erin had been married for five years and didn't have children yet. They pretty much told her that her children are going to be deaf and mute since she's waiting so long to have them. She loved that!!!
Our trip ended on a great note. Our last day at the compound we left after singing and dancing in the driveway. It all started when Erin told Juliet (who is a Nigerian gospel singer) that I loved to sing Gospel songs (Erin thought she was so clever and funny). It was quite a sight watching the white girls try to sing and dance to African Gospel music. Then on our very last night in Nigeria we stayed at Queen's house. Her cousin's wife made a huge meal, we had Queen's family and friends over, and we all wore our native African outfits that were made for us. All of the people that we met during our time in Nigeria were very grateful for all that we did, and welcomed us with kind words, smiles, and open arms. They are all very proud of where they come from and can't thank us enough for coming to help "their people".
I will post some pictures either later today or tomorrow and update the blog a bit more. My parents are currently visiting so I'm going to visit with them, but I wanted to just post a little something to say that I made it home safely. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers, I appreciated them more than you know. Again, I will update soon with pictures which I'm so excited to share with you!

Love Always,
Steph

Winding down....

Hi everyone - Here is an excerpt from an email I received from Steph that highlights the last couple days in Owerri:

Yesterday we went to the market and I got a few things for the house. We then went to the pharmacy to get meds for Mana and spent the afternoon dividing them up and putting them into individual baggies with directions for the people to take them. We'll drop them off with the people at Mana before we leave Owerri today. Our flight leaves Owerri for Lagos at 3:45. We'll then be at the Lagos airport until we leave at 10:45. I guess that there is an air conditioned lounge that you can pay to sit in. We've all saved enough money so that we can sit in there for the 5 hours before our departure. I can't imagine sitting in the hot airport for that long and then smelling all the way home.

I also talked to her this morning and they had made it to Lagos and were now waiting for their flight to Amsterdam which leaves at 10:45pm (Nigerian Time). From there they will be returning to Minneapolis and a much cooler climate which I think will be received rather warmly!

It sounds like they've had a wonderful experience in Nigeria and were able to do some really great things to help those less fortunate. Thank you all for following the blog and putting up with my translations of Steph's stories. Thank you also for your thoughts, prayers, and support - they are greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Nate

Tuesday

Hi everyone - I just talked with Steph for a while and it sounds like they are still visiting lots of different people/clinics and managing to have some laughs along the way. As I said earlier, yesterday was Erin's birthday and they ended up going to a place we all dream of going to for our birthday dinner....Crunchy's Chicken!! I'm told it was like a fast food place and not terrible. They spent yesterday in Anucha which is another of the shanty towns and saw lots of kids as usual, but also a good number of adults as well. Tomorrow they are supposed to go to the pharmacy in town and pick up some more of the eye medication that they have been using.

Later that day they were working with a group of people when a bunch of radical evangelists just starting singing/screaming and worshiping. The leader of the group asked if any of them sang and Erin said Steph was a great singer and volunteered her to join them. I can only imagine what this looked like, but I wish I would have been in the front row to watch! They will spending the remaining nights they are there at Queen's house which is the "comfort suite" of the trip so far since it boasts multiple ceiling fans.

Evidently there is some competition for my wife on the other side of the world as well as she told me that her and Erin constantly receive cat calls and whistles from the men working in the market. In addition to that, a cheif from one of the local tribes came up to her and tried to her to go back to his village so he could marry her off to one of his people! Steph and Erin must look pretty hot dripping with sweat and feeling what they called "gross and disgusting"!

They were also able to pick up a few things at the market for souvenirs/memorabilia. She closed by saying that today even the locals were saying it was very hot. Must be pretty warm over there....

Regards,
Nate

Anucha

I just talked to Steph again and it sounds like today was once again, a busy day. They went to 2 different church services this morning and it sounds like it was quite an experience. They were up dancing around and waving hankerchiefs as the loud music played and everyone was worshiping.
This afternoon they were back in the villages/clinics doing their medical exams on the people. She said the area they were in today reminded her of her trips to Haiti due to the fact it was so run-down and desolate. However, she was encouraged by the people of Nigeria expressing a hopeful demeanor as they went about their daily routines and activities. Much different than the people of Haiti who evidently do not share the same sentiment.

People are discouraged from travelling on the roads at night due to the uneven terrain and the threat of being carjacked so tonight they are staying in a hotel although it sounds like it doesn't afford them any additional luxuries than the guest houses. Tomorrow is her friend Erin's birthday so they were hoping to find something fun to do and thought they might get to go to the market and do some shopping. They will also be heading back to the village of Atta tomorrow.

She was ecstatic that they were able to purchase a toilet seat and now carry that around with them to use. However, she did not share the same tone of excitement when she told me that the people of the village were considering sacrificing a goat in honor of them and all the work they are doing to help out. Perhaps they will sacrifice it to celebrate Erin's birthday??

She said the internet situation is once again looking bleak so I will do my best to update this as often as I talk to Steph.

Regards,
Nate